Beer Top Wine Charms

I made these as a wedding gift for my cousin and his new bride. I wanted to add something fun and personal to the wine glasses they had registered for. I am trying so hard to get better at giving gifts. I can barely pick out a card and put a gift card inside. They had a really cute wedding invitation so I chopped it up and crafted these little cuties up in just a couple hours.

At the risk of sounding like an alcoholic, here are the major steps in this craft:

Drink several beers

Craft away

Drink wine with new craft

I thought it best to spread these steps out over several days, but that is a personal choice.

I had most of the supplies I needed already, but picked up some fun new beads just because I could. You will need:

Clean Beer Tops

un-mangled beer bottle tops

rubber mallet

small nail

candle

stick or pencil

mod podge or glue of some sort

paint brush

wire (I used 20 gauge)

needle nose pliers

beads

jump rings

fun paper pieces

scissors

You could collect the bottle tops as you ah, come upon them, or you could buy new ones. We happen to have a home brewer in the family. He hooked me up with a few of the bottle tops that he buys in bulk from the brewer supply store.

First, prep your bottle tops. I floated each one through a candle flame a couple times and then dug out the rubber ring on the inside of the cap. The candle gave the bottle top a cool tarnished look. I scrubbed them up pretty well so that they wouldnt turn any more fingers sooty and to get the rest of the rubber goo off. You could spray paint them if you wanted. I might try this with the next batch. Next comes the part where you get your aggression out- hammering the tops flat. The edges of the bottlge tops fold over and smooth out leaving an open flat area to decopage. I used a rubber mallet and placed the tops between magazine pages.

Flatten the beer bottle caps.

Flattening the beer tops = stress relief

Then cut out the little circles that will be decopaged on your charms. You could trace a quarter to make a circle to follow if you would like. Decopage the little circles on the center of your flattened bottle tops and let dry.

Decopage with Mod Podge and some paper pieces

To make the charms, use a small nail and hammer to punch a small hole at the top of each of the charms. Use a needle nose pliars to insert a jump ring in the lilttle hole you just made. Add some beads and the charm to the wire. Form a circle with the wire and bend the ends in to make a clasp. It isn’t easy to shape the wire and make it look nice. I could have used some more practice before making these as a gift, but alas. I think they turned out pretty good!